...first gained international attention after being imprisoned for anti-apartheid activities. During the 1950s, he became active politically as the white Afrikaner-controlled government increasingly institutionalized racial segregation.

...the cheerful crusader who devoted his presidency to winning the Cold War, trying to scale back government and making people believe it was 'morning again in America,' died Saturday after a long twilight struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

...for almost 40 years symbolized his people’s longing for a distinct political identity and independent state.

...who swept away a dictator with a 'people power' revolt and then sustained democracy by fighting off seven coup attempts in six years, died on Saturday. She was 76.

...shy and bookish, with a wispy mustache and unkempt hair, the dissident playwright was an unlikely hero of Czechoslovakia's 1989 'Velvet Revolution' after four decades of suffocating repression - and of the epic struggle that ended the wider Cold War.

...the long-serving prime minister of Canada who successfully defended his vision of federalism and a unified nation against the aroused forces of Quebec separatism, died yesterday.

...whose 41 1/2-year reign over Europe's isolated Marxist nation made him the world's longest-ruling Communist leader, died Thursday at age 76.

...the child of a poor village landowner who had been separated from his first wife, she rose meteorically through a brief radio and motion picture career to become the first lady of her land and one of the most influential women in the Western hemisphere.

...a soldier turned statesman who led his country into uncharted territory to make peace with the Palestinians and put an end to the wars, bloodshed and terrorism that had plagued his country since its founding.

...whose eight-year reign of terror in Uganda encompassed widespread killing, torture and dispossession of multitudes and left the country pauperized, died yesterday in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, where he had lived for years in exile.

World Leader

Obituary

...the first woman elected to lead a major western power; the longest serving British prime minister for 150 years; the most dominant and the most divisive force in British politics in the second half of the 20th century.

...her last months of office were marked by violence and political conflict, most conspicuously evident in clashes with the Sikh community in Punjab and with opposition elements in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

...the brutal dictator who repressed and reshaped Chile for nearly two decades and became a notorious symbol of human rights abuse and corruption, died yesterday at the Military Hospital of Santiago.

...and the first woman to lead a Muslim nation in modern times, was assassinated Thursday by an unknown suicide attacker at a campaign rally.

...the former UN secretary general and president of Austria whose hidden complicity in Nazi war crimes was exposed late in his career, died Thursday in Vienna.

...the burly provincial politician who became a Soviet-era reformer and later a towering figure of his time as the first freely elected leader of Russia, presiding over the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the demise of the Communist Party.

...whose marriage to American film star Grace Kelly brought elegance and glamour to one of Europe's oldest dynasties, died Wednesday at the hospital treating him for heart, kidney and breathing problems.

...he became master of Spain as a result of a military conspiracy, a dash of luck, timely help from foreign corporations, the influence of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and crucial armed assistance from Hitler and Mussolini.

...felt a holy mission to rid Iran of what he saw as Western corruption and degeneracy and to return the country, under an Islamic theocracy, to religious purity.

...was the last great emperor of Chinese Communism; his uncanny political skills, dogged commitment to economic reform and sheer good fortune propelled his vast country towards prosperity and power, and thus re-shaped world history.